Is it normal to be completely obsessed with a musical?

53% Normal
13 Comments

I am a slight bit concerned about myself.
When I say obsession, I'm not even talking about fangirls who adore these types of things. Not at all. This is something that was harmless at first, but it is really beginning to damage me in some way that I can't quite understand.

It started off with me listening to this musical once for fun. I kind of liked it and then went progressively more into it until I was absolutely in love.

I showed it to all my friends (they mostly didn't like it). And then... I wrote a very long essay about the protagonist of the musical.

I began obsessively comparing myself with the main character, who is portrayed as very intelligent. I'm now obsessed with my own intelligence and if I don't make a 100% on a grade (I am in my senior year. I just turned 18) I get so frustrated I have to go to the teacher to ask to fix it.

When I feel like I don't equate to the main character I become frustrated and depressed. I call myself stupid and I cry. I just cry until I can't anymore and continue on.

I am spending hundreds of dollars in just...cosplay. I've bought so much merch. I've already begun looking for tickets for the musical which is not coming to my state until next year. I have two copies of the biography of the main character, one paperback and one digital. They were both costly but I didn't care.

Not a day goes by that I don't think about this. And I can hardly listen to the music anymore because that's when I begin to compare myself to the extreme, but I'm still completely obsessed, wearing merch and such. I force myself to listen because I really do like it.

I don't know what to do..is this normal?

Voting Results
53% Normal
Based on 19 votes (10 yes)
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Comments ( 13 )
  • e51pegasi
    6 years ago

    Grease.

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  • dirtybirdy
    6 years ago

    Of course you didn't say what musical... pff

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    • Anonymous Post Author
      6 years ago

      I thought my post would give it away.

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      • dirtybirdy
        6 years ago

        Hmm, I live under a rock, so to speak, so I have no idea,,,although the first thing that came to mind was Les Miserabe. Then Rent... haha, that's all I know besides Cats...

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        • CozmoWank
          6 years ago

          Lion King?

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        • Boojum
          6 years ago

          Probably 101 Dalmatians.

          Or maybe Spider-Man: Turn Off the Dark

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  • MangoTango
    6 years ago

    Hamilton is the hot musical. Is it that one? :-)
    Am I a bad enabler for saying, I like your obsession?

    Just don't get into any duels with a guy named Aaron Burr! That of course all began with a barrage of back and forth lengthy letters.

    Here's a link if anyone wants to read their letters.
    https://en.wikisource.org/wiki/Hamilton%E2%80%93Burr_duel_correspondences

    This is good drama. What a rivalry!

    Don't know if you like this kind of trivia but here goes, just because I lol'd at this when I found it on YouTube....

    Original "got milk?" commercial - Who shot Alexander Hamilton?
    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OLSsswr6z9Y

    Aaron Burr (Advertisement)
    https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Aaron_Burr_(advertisement)

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  • Grunewald
    6 years ago

    I admit I'm not in the camp of 'if you like it and it's not encroaching on anyone else's freedoms it's fine'. That viewpoint makes a huge number of posts on IIN completely redundant. I'm not a relativist. I firmly hold that there are many things that encroach on nobody's freedoms, which it's not good to do or be obsessed with.

    A musical is one of any number of finite, commercial things that drain time and money for very little return except a dopamine/serotonin high. You may define your identity by it, but it is not you, and it never knew you, and it does not love you, and will not ultinately benefit you more than it drains you, and you have made no vow and are under no obligation to love it. It will take your money until it leaves you penniless in the street, like a drug dealer. If you are obsessed with it to that extent then you are giving a HUGE amount relative to what you or anyone else is gaining back, except in business profits. I'm not convinced that the problem is necessarily that musical, or the fact of simply spending money and time on meaningless stuff that makes us happy. The issue is the fact that you have this tendency to become enslaved, to the point of giving up your former identity, to things of this description. Unconditional, self-sacrificing, disinterested love is one of the most beautiful things in this world. But a musical does not need your love, and is not a sentient being, that it may ever appreciate or respond to your love.

    This is but one definition of 'wasting your life'. I'm sorry to put it so harshly, but that's how it is. Your feelings will fade (though perhaps not disappear), or something will come up and you'll urgently need to spend your resources on something for your or someone else's wellbeing, and you'll think 'What did I do with my time and money?'

    You'd be less likely to regret investing yourself in something that will last, that loves you, that benefits other people, and that promises something more precious than what you gave up for it.

    I guess you feel like you can't choose the object of your love, but maybe you could ask yourself why you find yourself loving the things you do, to such an extent? Maybe you could find a trusted person to work through that with.

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    • Spyman
      6 years ago

      Shouldn't this guy just become a set artist, or a behind the camera worker in the movie or theater industry?

      ...

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      • Grunewald
        6 years ago

        It'd be a nice career for someone interested in movies or musicals in general. But I think I've had an obsession like the one in the OP before, and trust me, nothing except my 'fix' of that one particular musical/film etc. would do. A career like that would have satisfied my 'itch' only if that musical was the one I was working on, and I imagine it'd be the same for the OP. Although maybe in that industry, he/she might meet more people who would be willing to engage with his/her obsession. What the OP is describing is something different, I think, from a general love of movies or musicals.

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  • rayb12
    6 years ago

    Tldr what musical

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  • OzwaldP
    6 years ago

    I'm guessing it's Hamilton. If it's something you enjoy then it's ok. Be careful of your finances though.

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    • Velvet_Cotton
      6 years ago

      You got it.

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